I haven't been to his courses. I have heard that he is better in class than he is on DVD. A LOT of AARs of his classes touch on how much he emphasizes accuracy, and it seems to be a common theme for students to come away shooting more accurately, even at speed.

If I had the time and money, I would definitely attend a pistol course with him.

I have taken two of Larry Vickers&#8217; courses for pistol and carbine. The classes were very good and well worth the money. He stresses the real world fundamentals and accuracy.

One of the nice things about his classes is that he tries to pace them so you can learn what you need to learn. Generally speaking, you&#8217;ll fire about 400 shots per day. He believes that people fatigue after 300 trigger pulls for well-aimed shots. He thinks that when people get tired that they start to abandon good form and begin to throw shots down range just to get through the exercise. From what I&#8217;ve seen, he is correct.

If you don&#8217;t follow the guidelines, it&#8217;ll make for a frustrating day for you and your classmates. I have been there with students who have brought bad holsters, have no electronic hearing protection, firearms that haven&#8217;t been lubed, etc. Don't be "That guy!"

-Leave with plenty of time to get to the range. Since a lot of outdoor ranges are far from town, it&#8217;s very easy to get lost (i.e by missing the turnoff for the range) or arrive there late because you are a sloth in the morning. You want to avoid doing those things.

-Bring food and water. While there will be a break for lunch, it generally is not long enough to go somewhere else, eat, and come back. Bring hand wipes because the range may not have running water to wash your hands.

-Dress to be outdoors all day. Wear clothes suited for the weather. Dress in layers so you can take it off if you get hot. Since you&#8217;ll be on your feet all day invest in a good pair of boots. Bring knee pads, elbow pads, and gloves. Bring sunglasses, sunscreen, and a hat. If it rains, be prepared to suck it up and endure.

-Spare mags. Figure on at least having five mags per firearm. Mark and number your mags. You don't want to play the "Is this mine or yours?" game.

For the carbine class, you should be able to have at least four rifle mags on you, not counting the one that is loaded in your carbine. That said, don&#8217;t go overboard. You don&#8217;t want to get fatigued by carrying extra weight from too many mags. There will be plenty of opportunities to reload. Bring a mag loader or have rifle ammo on stripper clips and save your thumb.

-If possible, bring a backup pistol and rifle. I know how it sounds, but occasionally guns break or go down. If your pistol or carbine goes down and you don&#8217;t have a backup, you have to hope someone else does and is willing to lend it to you. Ideally, you want your backup to be in the same caliber as your primary. It&#8217;s even better if it uses the same mags. When I went, there were plenty of guys at the course with duplicates of their primary firearms, just in case...

-Speaking of guns, Larry&#8217;s courses are primarily geared to the Glock pistol and the AR-15 pattern rifle. That is not to say you can&#8217;t bring something else, but you have to keep in mind when Larry is teaching weapon manipulation or clearing a jam and you&#8217;re standing there with something different you are not helping yourself. For some guns, it's no big deal but with others the differences are significant enough to make the exercise futile.

From Larry&#8217;s point of view, it&#8217;s totally fine to have your favorite firearm. The reason he uses the Glock and the AR for the course is that they are the most commonly used for this kind of work. That said, he feels you need to be able to make accurate hits with whatever firearm you have at your disposal. What he is trying to provide is the foundation for you to do that.

I would heavily emphasize not be "That Guy!" After a while of firearms failures due to pilot error, his patience turns sarcastic. You will henceforth be the stock for which he pulls all his comments about failure from...no matter how small.

In other words, make sure yer 'crap' is together before arriving.

He's more forgiving in the Basic, or Carbine/Pistol 1 class, as he expects more of such things to happen.

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